Smoothing the Early Game

[Algar]

I am enjoying myself thus far, but as I work up another set of toons, I am reminded of some things that were painful for me the first time around.

Arbitrary timegating via flags/drops/etc could stand to be revisited IMO.
The first charm quest, where only two people can receive a reward, is the first instance, but I think this likely applies to the epic 1.5 and some other similar quests as well.

I may be projecting a little, but feel it is fair to say that most people starting the server at this stage are doing so with one or more groups, and these stops feel like they add not much of anything other than dissatisfaction (to me at least). Increasing flags to unlimited (nobody is coming running), and increasing number of quest items dropped per kill otherwise would be great.

Conversely, other slogs like the emp key are still quite time-consuming for a group, but at least they are contained in one zone and offer some AAXP and loot along the way!

Thank you for your time and efforts!

[Lillu]

Hey, sure thing. I think you made some fair point. No plans to change tier based progression but early zones are definitely something we can revisit. Could you please give me a list of the things that you think were out of the line and made your early progress tedious or super boring? Obviously anyone else reading this can chime in and share his/her thoughts as well.

[Algar]

Sure thing!

Let me preface by saying that overall, I have really enjoyed my time here!
The Charm 2.0 and the Epic 1.5 are what led me to write the initial post, but I've given all of the pre-tier content I've done some thought, and this is what I came up with. I understand that there are some fine lines and slippery slopes when it comes to balancing/completing content; I'm hoping that the changes below simply smooth the bumps.

Charm 2.0: The rescued fairies only give credit for the rescue to two PCs at a time.
I would personally like to see the hail credit limit moved to 6, or even unlimited.

Charm 3.0: I would ensure that one group can get full updates from one clear of the Prince/Queen/Overking, or otherwise adjust things so the drops can be reasonably farmed in one (maybe slightly extended) play session. My memory is fuzzy on this one, because I'm still held up by the above on this newest set.

Epic 1.5: The first task of the quest is fine. I had a lot of fun in sebilis on my first group, leveling and farming gear as I went (also guk and CoM before it, same thing!). The stones were rare but not punishingly so IMO. It was the quintessential EQ experience.
Even when I was powerleveling a second group in seb (using 3 established PCs and 3 new ones), the new PCs managed to get every stone in the time it took to level them from 47-60 (with event exp bonus). I could've perhaps gotten faster xp elsewhere; but being able to do two things at once felt pretty good!

Now... Tasks 2-4 are frustrating. There are total of 11 bosses that need to be killed three times each for a group, and they are on a 2 hour respawn (6 hours for the dragons). It seems like a slog. 33 bosses, but there is very little draw to them. They are easy to kill, and this simply feels like a giant chore.
Dropping 6 items at a time seems more appropriate to me. What was a slog is now just a decently sized tour of a couple of zones you may not normally go to.

Shadow Haven quests:
Automoton - It would be great if the items from Zimloro's quest were pre-lootable. Feels a little punishing to be farming gems and have to leave cogs/etc on corpses, knowing that you will need to be looting them soon!

Fordel Gem - I would combine these into one quest, so that you can begin to receive credit for killing named once you start hunting in the zone, not only after you've killed 50 of each of the five types and gotten another quest.

Lastly (honorable mention) is Kael:
I would consider adjusting the kael BP drops: Change the two named that drop it to PH, or adjust their spawn time, or maybe add the BPs to other named in the zone.

I think that covers every bit of pre-tier early game I have touched, and it seems to be a likely path for other newer/returning players.

Thank you very much for your attention!

[Lillu]

Thanks for the detailed follow up, much appreciated! I took notes and will fine tune things based on your feedback. There might be some task/quest limitations I might not be able to merge but will think about a solution either way.

If anyone else has any other feedback on the topic, please post it below.

Thanks again!